


Now Or Never

by afteriwake



Series: Stuff Of Improbable Legends [63]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies), Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Advice, Friendship, Gen, Getting Back Together, Making Up, Male-Female Friendship, McCoy Screwed Up, Mentioned Molly Hooper/Leonard McCoy, POV Leonard McCoy, POV McCoy, Past Molly Hooper/Khan Noonien Singh, Relationship Advice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 11:06:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6903346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose sits McCoy down and gives him the final push he needs to make things right with Molly, once and for all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now Or Never

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sideofrawr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sideofrawr/gifts).



> And this was supposed to be written ages ago, but originally this had the beginning of the reconciliation between Molly and McCoy but **sideofrawr** and I ended up doing that in game , and I ended up having a ton of other stuff to write instead to try and clear out my Tumblr inbox so I _finally_ got around to editing this scene between McCoy and Rose set before McCoy meets up with Molly prior to his proposal and their marriage. Hopefully you enjoy it, hun!

_”She’s at a suite at the Royal Sonesta, you idiot.”_

He felt like he’d been in a fog the last few days, partially breached by his son, but not entirely until Rose said that, and then it was just…gone. They went to that hotel at least once a week for an evening or a weekend, stayed in a suite there. They had her island, sure, but the hotel was a nice escape when they still had to stay local. And they enjoyed the restaurants there, too; Molly was fond of the jazz bar especially. He knew she’d been staying local; everyone had been shifting things and arranging them so that she and he didn’t have to see each other at all, but he’d have thought she’d avoid anything with all traces of him.

So going to that hotel…that had to mean something.

He’d gone back to the cabin and gotten the bare minimum of clothes before he’d gone to stay with Jim and Rose, but all of his nicer stuff was all at the cabin still. And if he was going to go do what he should have done in the first place, shown Molly that he knew she loved him, that even though that damn psychopath had shown back up he _knew_ she loved him more than Khan, and he still wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, he should at least look his best.

He was surprised when he saw Rose standing in his doorway, holding up one of Jim’s suits. “This one isn’t one of his tailored ones,” she said, coming into the room. “Should fit you well enough. It’s a nice one. Armani.”

He nodded, taking it from her. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

“You know, I didn’t know Khan, not really. I mean, I was there when he was, for a bit, but he didn’t really…” She trailed off. “Molly was important to him, I guess, from what Jim said. Maybe the most important thing to him in Lawrence, aside from Bo.”

His jaw set. “Is this supposed to make me feel better?” he asked.

“I have a point,” she said. She leaned against the doorway. “Where I’m from, Dimitri sees me the same way. I mean, there are differences, but I’m pretty damn important to him. But…when they got here, Molly and I had both moved on. Dimitri I know wishes it was different, but he sees I love Jim and Jim loves me and he’s not going to try and break us apart because he’s a good man. He’s honorable. Khan…” She was quiet for a moment. “From what Livvy said, he saw Molly go to you and you push her away and he thought he still had a chance. And you really haven’t done anything to make it seem any different, which is, like, the opposite of what everyone who actually _lives_ here has seen since February.”

He sat down on the edge of his bed and hung his head. “She didn’t push him away,” he said. “He kissed her and…”

“Well, look at it from her point of view. Someone she never expects to see again comes in and kisses her. Don’t you think she’d be shocked for at least a couple of seconds?” Rose asked, coming in the sit next to him.

He thought about it a minute. “Yeah.”

“Did she kiss Khan back?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No. He stopped kissing her, I think.”

“You know, if _I_ had been in her situation and I was like she is, I probably would have done the same thing,” she said. “And then you just pushed her away and have more or less avoided her ever since, leaving an opening for him to just slip right in. You’re probably pretty lucky so much other crap has gone on and she’s been preoccupied with that. If there’s one thing Jim’s told me about him, he’s very manipulative. If she’s been busy dealing with other things, they probably haven’t talked much.”

McCoy groaned. “You know, for all the times I say Jim is an idiot, I’m an even bigger one, aren’t I?”

Rose nodded. “To be honest? You and Molly have kind of been idiots with each other from day one. Hell, I’d say _maybe_ from back in Lawrence, if Molly hadn’t been dealing with having lost Khan more recently, then.” She reached over and put a hand on his thigh. “She’s been miserable, though. Nyota and I have spent time with her and she’s more upset with you being distant than she is Khan not getting the hint.”

McCoy looked over at her. “Uhura knows?”

“Well, I mean, _everyone_ knows now. You saw Jim’s post. He didn’t exactly spell it out but it’s obvious. But Nyota figured it out at Sulu’s welcome to New Orleans party, when Carol asked about lost loves and she saw how you and Molly and Jim reacted. She figured Molly wasn’t taking this well so she made it a point to come with me.” She squeezed his thigh. “Get dressed up nice and go beg for her to take you back. She told me she was going to be there for your standing date, so whatever that is for you guys, I figure she’ll be there waiting.”

He nodded. Usually, whoever could get to the jazz club first would wait by the bar and order a drink, he remembered. They’d go on Thursdays usually because she liked the group that played, and afterward gone back to the cabin and listened to some of the jazz records that Molly’d had when he’d wished for her things and she’d pulled him in to dance until they became preoccupied with other things. Half the time they’d made it to their bedroom; the other half they’d just managed to pull a quilt over them on the sofa and set an alarm on one of their phones to get up and go about their morning routine. She’d usually wake up first and slip on his shirt, button it up part of the way, and walk into the kitchen to make them coffee while he watched her walk away, hips swaying. He’d thought days like that were over, to be honest.

He’d been an utter moron.

Rose got up and left and he got dressed. He didn’t realize Jim was more muscular than he had been back home now so the shirt and suit fit better than he thought it would. His shoes weren’t the dressiest but they would do fine. He took a look at himself and decided he looked good enough. Better than that over-styled psychopath. He made his way downstairs but he didn’t see any of the Kirks around, and so he let himself out of the house and got in his car to head downtown to the hotel. Once he got there and had the parking settled he made his way to the lobby, heading over to the Irvin Mayfield’s Jazz Playhouse. He paid his cover charge and went inside. It was certainly packed, just as it had been the other times the Jam Session was going on. She wasn’t hard to spot. 

Tonight she had on a red dress, something she said had a bateau neckline, which was shorter than knee length in the front and just below knee length in the back. He’d seen her try on the dress for a different event and had remembered telling her she looked damn gorgeous in it. Her hair was stick straight and swept over one shoulder and he honestly wanted to just take her up to the suite and kiss her for hours and apologize and start making all of this up to her for the rest of the evening, and maybe well into the next week. He fingered the small box in his pocket and took a deep breath. It was now or never, he thought to himself. Either she would take him back and they’d actually get a chance to try and live the life he thought they were supposed to have together, or they’d walk away from each other once and for all.

Hopefully, luck was on his side tonight.


End file.
